Page 76 of When The Night Falls

‘Work-related?’ Dad asked me.

‘Yes,’ I lied. ‘Anyway, I’m handling it.’

‘You always do.’

Like I’d said, one can never choose with whom to fall in love. Now that I had been struck, all I could do was gear up for the hunt – of a lifetime.

12 | friends

Cara

Tuesday morning, I woke up at eight and dragged my weary body out of bed to have a shower. My first exam, which was in Advanced Contract Law, was coming up on Friday, so I had reserved every weekday till then for revising. Since Jason started work at two this week, I would have the flat mainly to myself, so I had invited Aaron and Livy over.

They wouldn’t arrive till ten, however, and I was grateful for that because I was a fire-breathing dragon straight after waking, so I would have incinerated them in a heartbeat had they been here already. They both had first-hand experience with that idiosyncrasy of mine, so I supposed that was why they had suggested that we should meet at ten and that I should wake up at eight.

Half an hour later, I sat at the kitchen table. As I ate my breakfast and read the news on my iPad, Jason walked past the open door. He hadn’t bothered to put on a pair of boxers, but he covered his manhood with his hand.

‘Morning,’ he murmured groggily, and I could tell from his hair that he had just removed the eye mask he always wore to sleep. In fact that was the only thing he wore while asleep, and I had learned that last summer when we had spent a week at his family’s holiday house on the Isle of Wight.

‘Morning.’ I smiled at the sight of his taut bum before he disappeared from my view on his way to the bathroom. Men, in my experience, often had better arses than women, and it was something I frequently envied them for. Jason didn’t train his lower body half as much as I did, but judging from his derrière, it looked like he trained nothing else. Aaron was no exception, either.

An outsider would perhaps have found it strange that Jason didn’t mind if I saw him naked, but the truth was that Jason was a bit of a naturist. To him, the naked body was the most natural thing in the world and therefore nothing to be ashamed of. Given his course of study, I supposed he had a rather clinical perspective on the matter.

He came back a few minutes later with damp hair and a white towel around his hips. ‘When are Aaron and Livy coming over?’ he asked and went to the Nespresso machine to make himself a cup of coffee.

‘At ten.’

He nodded. ‘I haven’t seen Livy in ages – not since she split from Colin.’

‘Yeah, she became a bit of a recluse while she licked her wounds. She’s over him now, though, so you’ll probably see her more often, especially now that we live together.’

‘She’s over Colin?’ He turned toward me. ‘Proper over?’

I raised my cup of coffee. ‘I think so. Seems like it. She barely ever talks about him anymore.’

Jason faced away and grabbed his fresh brew. ‘Good for her. That bastard never deserved her in the first place.’

‘No, he didn’t.’

‘Well, I’m looking forward to it. I’ve always liked her. I think she’s my favourite out of your friends. Aaron is a close second, though.’

I smiled. Olivia was indeed adorable, and I had always been thankful for her presence in my life even though we were quite different personality-wise; however, we had known each other since we were only three, so our difference in temperament was something we had learned to appreciate over the years. She had been my partner in crime for as long as I could remember, and because our ambitions had always correlated, we had helped each other prosper. Our biggest difference in character was that Olivia was a hopeless romantic while I was more of a realist.

‘She’s fond of you too,’ I said.

‘Is she?’

‘Isn’t everyone?’

He chuckled. ‘Stop. You’re making me blush,’ he joked.

‘Just stating my view.’

He shook his head, grinning.

§ § §

We had been revising for nearly an hour when I received a call from Dad. To avoid disturbing Olivia and Aaron, I walked into my room before answering it. He mainly wondered how I was doing and whether I felt ready for my exams, so I complained about how stressed I was. When I was done venting, he asked me to come for dinner on Friday. I declined because Mary-Anne, Aaron’s mother, had already invited me, so we agreed on Saturday instead. Then we hung up.

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